Why dont we make SS damascus?

Bruce Bump

Bruce Bump

Joined
Dec 2, 1999
Messages
9,910
Is it too hard for us or what? I have never made it before so Im not being a wise guy. Really why doesnt everybody make it. We make tons of simple carbon damascus but hardly anybody makes the stainless damascus. What is so hard about the process that we dont make it? I will give it a try if some of youse master minds get me started. Is there a special flux or something? Maybe higher temps? What? Why couldnt it be done in a can with no flux at all just higher temp?
 
From what I've heard you need an atmosphere controled furnace and a stronger flux. A few people do mess with making stainless damascus, but it's harder to do with home equipment. Doing in a can might work out well, I couldn't say not having ever done it.
 
Bruce, try some small scrap pieces of stainless left over from rough profiling blades. See how it works for you. Experiment. I know they forge stainless damascus and my money is on you. If you can't learn to do it it ain't being done by anybody. That brings me to this: I just hate trashing all those bits and pieces of stainless I end up with after rough profiling. I wish someone could use them for something. I do not know what they could be good for but I'd rather pitch them into a bin for shipment than the trash for the dump.

RL
 
Okay so my next question is, what types of SS will make good contrast when pattern-welded? Right off the bat, I'm thinking perhaps a high-300 series with a high-400 series.
 
Devin used AEBL and 304 for years. I should see what he uses now. Damasteel is good stuff...what is it?
 
Devin still uses AEB-L and 304 (among others). Damasteel uses RWL-34 (powder ATS-34) and 12C27.
 
Go for it, Bruce. Schwarzer said on a thread on TKN that it welds relatively well in a can, but the problem comes with the drawing because the steel air hardens. Thus, a lot of cycles with little drawing per cycle.

I remember seeing a couple of fotos about the Damasteel once. If I remember correctly they are layering RWL34 powder in cans. It starts out all powder.

We need to find a domestic source for high carbon SS powder. Crucible obviously has it for the CPM steels. Wasn't there scuttlebutt about them working in conjunction with a damascus maker to come up with powder process stainless damascus sometime during this past year? I thought one constituent was 154CM. Can't dig up any more of the memory, though, nor where I saw it.
 
Bruce, I bet if you called Devin he'd tell you how to do it to a point. I got a bar of his spiragraph from 5 years ago that I still haven't touched. Maybe I'll make a hawk out of it.
 
indian george said:
Why can't we use the 1084 powder in the can and make the designs out of ATS-34 and 304???? :confused: :confused:
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If you mix horsecrap and cheesecake, it still tastes like horsecrap.


That's the limit of my technical input for the day.
 
Hi Bruce,
Stainless Damascus presents some unique problems, besides being air hardening. 300 series behaves like nonferrous material in heat treating. When you want a annealed material you might do a slow cool from a hot forge, that is the hardening process for 300 series, and annealing process for 400 series. Stainless tends to be red short. I've welded my scrap pieces of stainless. Some of this material was overheated and the material crumbled. I've put 300 series stainless in high carbon non-stainless billets for contrast. The trouble started when I tried to bandsaw the "annealed" material. I wasted a bandsaw blade. Devin is serious about time and temp and uses a thermocouple to insure accuracy. I've been twisting Dick Barbers arm for about 6 months to get Crucible to make a Stainless steel San Mai product, a material with ductility that would have an S 30 V core. I've talked to my friend Devin about making the material and he probably will at some point. Maybe someone who posts here can work on their dad about that...Take Care...Ed
 
Mark Williams said:
If you mix horsecrap and cheesecake, it still tastes like horsecrap.
Click to expand...

Mark, if you knew what was in it, why did you try that cheesecake in the first place? ;)
 
Mark Williams said:
I knew that would rattle your cage :)
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It sure don't take much, huh? ;)

Besides, if it aint spicy-enough to singe a warthog's scrotum, IG don't eat it anyway. :D
 
Ed Schempp said:
I've been twisting Dick Barbers arm for about 6 months to get Crucible to make a Stainless steel San Mai product, a material with ductility that would have an S 30 V core. I've talked to my friend Devin about making the material and he probably will at some point. Maybe someone who posts here can work on their dad about that...Take Care...Ed
Click to expand...
Devin is currently experimenting with San Mai.
 
I talked to Devin the other day and as Larrin just said, he is working on a stainless san mai. Also Devin makes a lot of stainless damascus, probably more than anyboby else in this country. I've welded 1095 shim stock and stainless heat treating foil in a closed weld (no flux), around 80 layers at one time, then cut in half and welded again, no problems in a closed weld but when I did it with flux it would not stick.

Don Hanson lll
 
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